The wonderful thing about between energy, and the big open heart it requires, is its immediacy. When you connect to it and work primarily with and from it then any attempts by the other to manipulate or control, either you, themselves or the situation, are so easily felt and can be cut through literally like a knife through butter. Even obeying the principles of Tai Chi – turning the waist, keeping the lower spine vertical, sinking – if they are having to be concentrated on rather than being allowed to happen naturally, will distract you from the between energy – the immediate reality of that other person in front of you. It is important to have practised the principles sufficiently in your own solo practice for you to be able to forget all about them when working with a partner, and just be with them, working together to get closer to the reality between that's just dying to express itself through your pooled enthusiasm for the magical inspiration of between energy. In fact the term energy is not quite right here because there is something about the reality between that is non-energetic – or at least is pre-energy. The pre stages are the most interesting, and of course the most subtle. When you stand in front of another in a Tai Chi class, when did that exchange actually begin? When you face each other? When the teacher announces “Find a partner” or “Change partners”? The beginning of the class? When you first decided to take up Tai Chi? When you were born? Or before that? Some people you feel you were destined to meet, and some you feel you've known all your life. And even those you don't like or just find difficult, if you work and honour the reality between sufficiently – put their annoying quirks aside and believe that something good can come from the exchange – then sooner or later a deeper connexion will develop, or, more likely, reveal itself to have been there all along.
The most interesting thing, for me, about my last teaching trip to Ireland, was being able to work with complete beginners on the Thursday evening. We started the session with some simple energy circuits which help connect you to the other (or rather open you to the connexion which is already there) and then did the first posture of the Short Form – the one my teacher added. I taught it entirely from the perspective of using the movements to connect heart-to-heart and embrace the imaginary other, and didn't mention the waist, or verticality, or sinking. It was fascinating to watch the beginners doing the posture far better than the old hands (which includes myself I dare say). The old hands couldn't help but relax, turn the waist and sink, and enjoy the power and familiarity of those actions. What they didn't appreciate is that by having those actions primarily in mind and in body they lose the other and remember themselves – the opposite of what we are actually trying to do with the Tai Chi. The beginners, in their innocence, could only do what they were told, which was to step out with their left foot to establish a vertical connexion with the other and then circle their arms to establish a horizontal one. They sank to step, and turned their waist to embrace, and kept their spine vertical (otherwise they'd have lost the directness of the heart-to-heart connexion), but they did it all naturally, not in order to do something else. What was beautiful about it was that even though the beginners were just embracing empty space in front of them, when I watched them from 10 or 15 meters away, I was emotionally affected by their actions. I was drawn into the space they were working with and their heart was moving mine. When I watched the old hands I could make dispassionate judgments about their postures only because they weren't reaching out to draw me in. This teaching experience gave me great hope because it made me realise that solo work needn't be an arena where you just put your body and energy through their paces (training – I despise that term), which, let's face it, is really just working on self. If you work as though the other were really present, heartfully and emotionally (dare I say it), then your work will be benefiting all you are connected with, which, the more you can sink back into the pre stages, becomes gradually the whole of creation. This is natural compassion and natural healing.
The most interesting thing, for me, about my last teaching trip to Ireland, was being able to work with complete beginners on the Thursday evening. We started the session with some simple energy circuits which help connect you to the other (or rather open you to the connexion which is already there) and then did the first posture of the Short Form – the one my teacher added. I taught it entirely from the perspective of using the movements to connect heart-to-heart and embrace the imaginary other, and didn't mention the waist, or verticality, or sinking. It was fascinating to watch the beginners doing the posture far better than the old hands (which includes myself I dare say). The old hands couldn't help but relax, turn the waist and sink, and enjoy the power and familiarity of those actions. What they didn't appreciate is that by having those actions primarily in mind and in body they lose the other and remember themselves – the opposite of what we are actually trying to do with the Tai Chi. The beginners, in their innocence, could only do what they were told, which was to step out with their left foot to establish a vertical connexion with the other and then circle their arms to establish a horizontal one. They sank to step, and turned their waist to embrace, and kept their spine vertical (otherwise they'd have lost the directness of the heart-to-heart connexion), but they did it all naturally, not in order to do something else. What was beautiful about it was that even though the beginners were just embracing empty space in front of them, when I watched them from 10 or 15 meters away, I was emotionally affected by their actions. I was drawn into the space they were working with and their heart was moving mine. When I watched the old hands I could make dispassionate judgments about their postures only because they weren't reaching out to draw me in. This teaching experience gave me great hope because it made me realise that solo work needn't be an arena where you just put your body and energy through their paces (training – I despise that term), which, let's face it, is really just working on self. If you work as though the other were really present, heartfully and emotionally (dare I say it), then your work will be benefiting all you are connected with, which, the more you can sink back into the pre stages, becomes gradually the whole of creation. This is natural compassion and natural healing.
No comments
Post a Comment